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Battles - The Battle of Otranto Straits, 1917

Having mounted a series of ongoing assaults upon the Allied Otranto Barrage in the Mediterranean - usually whenever one of their
submarines was lost to an unknown cause - the Austro-Hungarian Navy
determined to launch a concerted attack on the night of 14/15 May 1917.

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The attack, planned by then-Captain Miklos Horthy de
Nagybanya, was led by three light cruisers (Novaro, Helgoland
and Saida, initially disguised as destroyers so as not to overly
alarm the Allies) and two destroyers and was specifically directed against
the ill-defended Allied anti-submarine trawlers which comprised the Barrage.

Having set sail from the
port of Cattaro the Austro-Hungarian initiative began with an attack against
an Italian munitions ship and its accompanying destroyer, sinking both.

The three cruisers
proceeded to sail along the Otranto Barrage at 3.30am sinking fourteen
Allied patrol craft in the space of two hours, having first given their
hopelessly outgunned crews an opportunity to take to their escape crafts.
In addition to the fourteen trawlers sunk many others were severely damaged.

Having wrought the desired
level of damage the Austro-Hungarian force turned around and sailed back
towards Cattaro. In the interim however a combined British, French and
Italian flotilla had been despatched post-haste from Brindisi in an attempt
to cut off the Austro-Hungarians. The Allied force included two
British Town Cruisers, Dartmouth and Bristol, together with
four Italian destroyers and Aquila, the flotilla leader.

Having
eventually caught up with the Austro-Hungarians at 7.45am on 15 May the
resultant encounter, which on paper ought to have led to a clear-cut Allied
victory, saw the Austro-Hungarians escape in the face of poor Allied
tactics.

Aquila was disabled
by Austro-Hungarian fire. During a high-speed chase two of the Allied
destroyers suffered breakdowns and had to be left behind with escorts.
Bristol meanwhile proved too slow for the chase with the consequence
that only Dartmouth and two destroyers were left to pound the
Austro-Hungarians from a distance, Novara being forced to a
standstill.

However the Allied ships
called off their pursuit once they detected the smoke of approaching
Austro-Hungarian reinforcements at a distance. While returning
Dartmouth was severely damaged via a German U-boat torpedo (U-25)
and one of its accompanying destroyers was sunk by a mine.

As a consequence of the
encounter the Italian naval Commander-in-Chief dismissed the Otranto Barrage
as being essentially indefensible. The British disagreed but
night-time patrols of the Barrage were nevertheless abandoned.

Success at the Otranto
Straits brought Horthy much prestige; so much so that following the mutiny
at Cattaro in March 1918, followed by the forced resignation of
Admiral Njegovan,
Horthy found himself promoted Rear Admiral and appointed Commander in Chief
(Austria-Hungary's last) of the battlefleet over the heads of many more
qualified officers.